Benin jailbreak: Obaseki issues ultimatum to fleeing inmates

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo on Wednesday issued ultimatum to fleeing inmates of the Benin Custodial Centre on Sapele road and the Oko Maximum Security Correctional Centre on Airport road to return to the prisons before Friday, Oct. 23, 2020.

Obaseki gave the ultimatum while inspecting the correctional centres and the police facilities destroyed by hoodlums in Benin.

Obaseki was accompanied on the inspection of the destroyed facilities by the deputy governor Philip Shaibu, Secretary to State Government, Osarodion Ogie, Chief of staff Ethan Ozamere, DIG Celestine Okoye, and

Commissioner of Police

Kokumo among others.

Obaseki said the destructions carried out in the state were never in the spirit of EndSARS but an act carried out by criminal elements.

“This is sheer criminality while the real protesters were focusing on the reform of our policing system and not to destroy government property, destroy prisons, and release inmates,” he said.

Obaseki used the opportunity to appeal to all the fleeing inmates to come back on their own before the close of business on Friday.

“If they come in and go to the Nigeria Police Force Command headquarters in Benin nothing will be done to them,” he added.

Johnson

According to him, those who do not return after Friday night, “we have all their records, we have their biometrics, and appropriate sanctions will be meted out against them.”

Also speaking, Mr Babayo Maisanda, Controller of Correction, Edo Command, said 1,818 inmates were still at large, while 163 were recaptured.

He said the Oko Correctional Centre currently has 182 inmates with 28 of them from Farm Centre adding that the Custodial centre on Sapele Road has 15 inmates.

“Currently, 10 officers who sustained various degrees of life-threatening injury are receiving treatments at various hospitals in Benin City,” he added.